At Kenbashi Station
by AnnaMariaNordlade
Summary: Akai Shuichi is out walking, planning to buy some cigarettes, until he sees something - or someone. Akai's point of view of the ending of FILE 383 (Episode 311) from Detective Conan.


**This is Akai's point of view from when he sees Haibara and Conan at the Kenbashi station and notices the resemblance between Haibara and Shiho Miyano.** **I hope you will enjoy reading it.**

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The air was cold, but refreshing. He had decided to go for a walk and buy a pack of cigarettes on the way. He had used up his last one last night after he had contacted Jodie on the pay phone. He couldn't use a cell phone to call her, since the calls could be traced. He had an earplug connected to his radio to hear the news, but most of it had been about a robbery that had occurred during the night. He could really use something to keep his mind busy. Just something to do while waiting for Jodie and James to contact him with news about Vermouth. Right now he felt tired and worn out. He felt like an old man.

He hadn't been getting much sleep last night. The meeting with the Sleeping Kogoro's daughter earlier had brought up memories of Akemi. Memories that haunted him. Pleasant memories. Heartbreaking memories. Tearful memories. Everything mixed up in a bitter cocktail meant to torment him. When he closed his eyes, he kept seeing her face in his mind.

He had never thought that he would end where he was now, when he entered FBI seven years ago. It felt like a lifetime ago.

Back then he had been driven by a burning desire to uncover what had happened to his father, despite that his paranoid mother was against it. Possessed by a Shinigami? Maybe she had been right. He had been overconfident and a bit arrogant in the past. But he also knew back then that he and his family couldn't hide forever from what had erase his father.

The best defense was an attack.

Right now he and his colleagues were on the trail of Vermouth, Chris Vineyard, a high-ranked member of the organization. One who belong to the Boss' inner circle.

If the hunt for Vermouth went well, then they would be one big step toward the center. Especially since Vermouth was a favorite of the Boss. Well, there would still be a lot of work to do.

Anyway, soon or later he would destroy the organization.

"You think I'll buy that?" a girl asked in a disapproving voice.

 _Huh?_

"Don't worry about it," answered a boy.

The voices drew his attentions and he turned his eyes toward the sound for a moment.

It was that boy from the detective agency. Edogawa Conan. The boy who Jodie was so fond of. The boy who was somehow of interest to Vermouth. But to Akai he was a walking mystery. He was talking with a brown-haired girl around his age – maybe a classmate of his. It seemed like they were arguing over something.

He just looked at them for a second, before turning his face away to continue his walk.

Then something stuck him like a bucket of cold water.

That face. Those words.

 _You think I'll buy that?_ Those words began a chain reaction in his mind. He had heard those words before. In the same tone – the same voice.

From the same face.

 _Don't worry…_ another voice said – not the boy. But someone else. Someone he would never forget for the rest of his life.

 _Do you think…_

The memory became clearer. Like it was something that lied under water and was beginning to surface.

" _Don't worry about me, Shiho," said Akemi with a forced cheerfulness. "There is nothing wrong."_

 _Her younger sister didn't look assured. "Do you think I'll buy that?"_

He froze at once. All sounds, cars and bystanders' chatter, around him seemed to get turned off, as shock waved through him like a lighting. All he could hear was the radio speaking through the earplug.

" _Next on the news. At 5:00 a man was found dead in his New Baker Hotel room. The victim was the famous C.G. designer Itakura Suguru-san, age 45. Next is…_ "

He turned his head and looked over his shoulder. The children were already heading in the direction he came from. But he could see them from behind. The girl's brown-haired hairstyle.

 _It can't be…_ he thought.

Suddenly the girl stopped up, as if she sensed his attention. Quickly he turned away from them and began walking again.

But his mind was in a chaos.

 _Impossible._

It couldn't be Shiho. That sort of thing was impossible. And yet how big were chances for a girl around six-seven years to have same face and voice as an eighteen-year-old woman, who had seemed to vanish into thin air? It couldn't be a coincidence.

Akai tried to come up with any logical explanation, but he had no answer. And the lack of sleep wasn't making it easy for him.

The thought of Vermouth, Chris and Sharon Vineyard floated in back of his mind. But there has to be a logical explanation. Then he thought about how the picture of Shiho was found in Araide's clinic along with pictures of that sleeping detective's daughter and that boy. The actress' seemingly unfading beauty.

The idea was too strange to shallow for him.

But one thing was certain. He couldn't leave it alone. He had to look deeper into it. He couldn't follow the children right now. Seeing as the girl could sense his present, and the boy already knew him by face from that bus incident.

But he would find a way around it. He had his methods.

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 **Akai is one of my favorite characters in 'Detective Conan'. I think he is an interesting character, whose thoughts I wish to see more of in the manga.**


End file.
